Foot-power.



No. 725,551. PATENTED APR. 14, 1903. 0. H. GENTRY.

FOOT POWER.

APPLIOATION FILED AUG. 9. 1902.

N0 MODEL.

INVENTOR.

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u: mama raga; co 0 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLIVER HOWARD GENTRY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 'FOOT-POWER.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 725,551, dated April14, 1903.

Application filed August 9, 1902. Serial No. 119,024. (No model.)

To aZl whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, OLIVER HOWARD GEN- TRY, a citizen of the UnitedStates of America,

' and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn,

New York city, and State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Foot-Power, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to foot-power apparatus for drivingsewing-machines, lathes, and other light machines; and it consists ofimproved means for applying the power through the instrumentality of apendulous treadlecarrying lever to be operated by a swinging motioneffected by flexure of the knee-joint rather than the common pedaloperated by the ankle-joint,which has some advantages, as hereinafterdescribed, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which-Figure 1 is an end elevation/of a sewingmachine stand with my improvedpower apparatus applied. Figs. 2and 3 are enlarged details of the lowerparts of the pendulous lever and treadle. Fig. 4 is a vertical sectionof the transmitting apparatus geared with the upper end of said lever,the section being taken through the axis of the lever on line 4 4 ofFig. 5. Fig. 5 is partly an elevation of the apparatus of Fig. 4 andpartly a transverse s'ection online y y. Fig. 6 represents details ofthe driving clutch-pinions.

A represents a part of one end frame of the stand. a represents a shortshaft fitted in a bushing I), mounted in said part A of the frame andsecurely clamped'by its flangehead 0 and the disk nut 61, the latter,being screwed onto the screwhreaded inner end of the bushing.

The flange o carries a socket 6, wherein.

bearing-balls f are placed, and a driving-pulley g, carried on the outerend of shaft a, has

a cone h, forming the complement of a ballbearing for the outerextremity of said shaft ct. Near the other extremity of said shaft a itcarries a spur-toothed wheel 2', which is inclosed in a cover j, the rimof which closely fits on the periphery of the disk nut d, by which thecover is centered relatively to the bore'of bushing 17, and the rimofsaid cover has a flange 70, by which it is bolted to frame A, withintermediate packing for retaining lubricating-oil. Said rim of thecover is also slotted in the upper side at Z for clearance for.

whereon the pendulous lever 0 is mounted,

said stud being in the axis of shaft a and having a socket p, which isthe socket for a ball-bearing for the inner end of shaft a, of which qrepresents the balls and r the cone, said cone being secured by a nut s,screwed on the shaft. cover 11, boltedonto the end of pivot n.

Above the pivot 41 lever 0 carries two spurtoothed segments a a,respectively, gearing with pinions w w, mounted on the pivot-stud m saidpivot-stud beinga fixture in the frame A, to which it is secured by thedisk head-z and the nut 2, screwed on the end of t'he stud.

To the hub of the pinion w a wheel is attached having a spur-toothed rim4, gearing with wheel 2', and a bevel-toothed rim 5, gearing with thebevel-pinion 6, located above pinions w won the vertical pivot-stud 7,supported by the bracket 8, attached to frame- The socket n is closed bya riphery of the hub and clutch-rollers 12 in 1 the notches, whereby theclutch engages for driving when the hub moves in one direction anddisengages when the hub moves in the otherdirection, and theclutch-notches of the respective hubs are arranged in reverse of eachother, as represented in Fig, 6, whereby.- .through the 'instrumentalityof the wheels 3 and 9, alternatelydriven forward in'opposite,

directions and engaging pinion 6 on opposite sides of its pivot,continuous forward motion is communicated to shaft aand pulley g,

which give motion through the belt 13 to the pulley 14 of thesewing-machine shaft or tothe spindle or other high-speed object to bedriven.

Under the lever 0 I have provided a guidechannel 15 for the lower end ofsaid lever, with an antifriction-roller 16 on a stud in the end of thelever for eoonomizing friction against the side walls of the channel.The

said channel is carried on a bracket 17, bolted onto the framepiece B,in which there is a vertical slot 18 for the bolt 19, allowing thebracket to be shifted up and down to adjust it with relation to thelever. The bolt 19 also traverses a slotted bracket 20, in which one endof the end-frame connecting-rod 21 has a bearing at 22, which bracket isclamped to the end frame-piece B by said bolt. Said bolt may be shiftedin the slot of this bracket to adjust the guide-channel.

The pedal 23 is connected to the lever 0 by a cranked rod 24, allowingthe pedal to be shifted forward and backward to suit the operator, saidrod having a collar 25 and a nut 26 on the part connected with the lever0 for clamping the lever and holding the pedal in the positions in whichit may be set.

At 27 I represent a coiled spring, the purpose of which is to retractthe lever, as indicated in Fig. 1, when released from the foot of theoperator, so that the first movement in starting will be the forwardthrust, which is the movement most favorable for application of thepower.

I am aware that a pendulous lever with a toothed segment and areciprocating clutchpinion are not new broadly as a foot-powerdriving-gear, and I do not claim'such devices broadly.

What I do claim as my invention is- 1. The combination of the penduloustreadle-carrying lever, bearing two reciprocating toothed segments,reversely-driving clutchpinions respectively engaging said toothedsegments, a bevel-wheel connected with each pinion and geared with anintermediate bevelpinion on opposite sides of its axis, and atransmitting-Wheel geared with one of the bevel-Wheels.

2. The combination with the transmittingwheel, of the pinion, shaft andpulley geared with said transmitting-wheel, bushing wherein said shaftis mounted and being supported in the frame-piece and secured by thedisk nut, flanged cover inclosing said pulley-driving pinion, and disknut, the shaft bearing socketed pivot-stud on the back of said cover,and the pendulous foot-lever pivoted on said stud and geared with saidtransmitting-wheel. Signed at New York this 2d day of August,

OLIVER HOWARD GENTRY. WVitn'esses:

O. SEDGWIGK, J. M. HOWARD.

